Old World

The Old World of wine refers to Europe and the best known producers are France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, The United Kingdom and Hungary. At The Wine School of Cheshire we refer our European neighbours closer to the Eastern Mediterranean as Ancient World wines to reflect their origins.

Old World winemaking is influenced by tradition and terroir. The former refers to the long history of a wine region, while the latter refers to geography and the unique characteristics of each area.

Terroir is often used to describe the aspects of a wine region such as soil and climate that are out of the winemaker’s control.

Wines in the Old World are mostly labeled based on the region or place that they come from (such as Montrachet or Rioja. Old World winemakers believe that the unique characteristics of where a wine comes from plays a more distinct role in shaping the resulting wine than the grape variety itself, although competition from the New World is slowly shoeing this approach change. Join us to find out more about what’s actually in the bottle and how to understand all that wine label jargon and much more.